Structural racism is broader than institutional racism. Institutional racism describes one organization's policies. Structural racism describes how many institutions interact over time, so a disadvantage in one area carries into the next.
Housing shows how this works. From the 1930s, federal agencies rated Black neighborhoods as risky, a practice called redlining, which blocked mortgages there. Because many school districts are funded through local property taxes, lower home values meant less school money. Lower school funding affected job prospects, which affected wealth, which affected where families could buy homes. Each system passed the disadvantage to the next.
The result shows up in health and wealth today. Neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s are more likely to have fewer trees, higher summer heat and higher rates of asthma, according to multiple studies. In 2022, the median white family held about $285,000 in wealth, compared with about $44,900 for the median Black family. Fixing one system rarely closes these gaps, because the others keep producing them.